Simon Oakland
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Simon Oakland (August 28, 1915 – August 29, 1983) was an American actor of stage, screen, and television. During his career, Oakland performed primarily on television, appearing in over 130 series and made-for-television movies between 1951 and 1983. His most notable big-screen roles were in '' Psycho'' (1960), ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
'' (1961), ''
The Sand Pebbles ''The Sand Pebbles'' is a 1962 novel by American author Richard McKenna about a Yangtze River gunboat and its crew in 1926. It was the winner of the 1963 Harper Prize for fiction. The book was initially serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Po ...
'' (1966), ''
Bullitt ''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner ...
'' (1968), '' The Hunting Party'' (1971), and ''
Chato's Land ''Chato's Land'' is a 1972 Western Technicolor film directed by Michael Winner, starring Charles Bronson and Jack Palance. In Apache country, the half-native Chato shoots the local sheriff in self-defense, and finds himself hunted by a posse of ...
'' (1972).


Early life and career

Oakland was born in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, the eldest of the three sons of immigrant Jewish parents, Jacob Weiss and Ethel Oaklander, born in Romania and Tsarist Russia, respectively. His father was a plasterer and builder. While he later claimed in media interviews to have been born in 1922 (a date repeated in his ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' obituary),
Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
and
vital records Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some ...
indicate he was born Simon Weiss in 1915; his
stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
was derived from his mother's maiden name, Oaklander. He began his performing career as a
musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...
(he was a
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
ist, an
avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...
he pursued during his entire career as an actor). Oakland began his acting career in the late 1940s. He enjoyed a series of
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
hits, including ''Light Up the Sky'', '' The Shrike'', and '' Inherit the Wind'', and
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
was one of his lasting passions. He was a concert violinist until the 1940s.


Film and television

In 1955, Oakland made his film debut, albeit uncredited, as an
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
state trooper in '' The Desperate Hours''. He next appeared in two films released in 1958: as Mavrayek in ''
The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...
'' and as journalist Edward Montgomery in ''
I Want to Live! ''I Want to Live!'' is a 1958 American biographical film noir directed by Robert Wise and starring Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent and Theodore Bikel. It follows the life of Barbara Graham, a prostitute and habitual criminal who is ...
'' Oakland's notable performance in ''I Want to Live!'' led to his playing a long series of bullying tough-guy types, usually in positions of authority, but sometimes as villains, or as an admixture of both. He appeared in ''Psycho'' as the psychiatrist who, at the end of the film, explains
Norman Bates Norman Bates is a fictional character created by American author Robert Bloch as the main antagonist in his 1959 thriller novel '' Psycho''. He has an alter, Mother, who takes from the form of his abusive mother, and later victim, Norma, wh ...
's
multiple personality disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...
. He appeared in ''West Side Story'', ''The Sand Pebbles'', and ''Bullitt''. He made two guest appearances on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
's ''
Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a cli ...
'', both times as the murder victim. He also appeared in the syndicated crime drama, ''
Decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lu ...
'', starring
Beverly Garland Beverly Lucy Garland (née Fessenden; October 17, 1926 – December 5, 2008) was an American actress. Her work in feature films primarily consisted of small parts in a few major productions or leads in low-budget action or science-fiction movie ...
. Oakland appeared once on the CBS Western ''
Dundee and the Culhane ''Dundee and the Culhane'' is an American Western drama series starring John Mills and Sean Garrison that aired on CBS from September 6 to December 13, 1967. Synopsis ''Dundee and the Culhane'' follows the exploits of two frontier lawyers who pro ...
'' and once on the series ''Sheriff of Cochise''. He was a regular, as General Thomas Moore, on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
's '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'', starring
Robert Conrad Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk; March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020) was an American film and television actor, singer, and stuntman. He is best known for his role in the 1965–1969 television series ''The Wild Wild West'', playin ...
. He also appeared in two episodes of the original ''
The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...
'' TV series and in '' The Outer Limits'' as the alien birdman in " Second Chance". In 1974 and 1975, he was a series regular on '' Kolchak: The Night Stalker'', playing newspaper editor Tony Vincenzo. (He had previously played the same character in the two made-for-television movies that served as the pilot for the series.) During the 1970s, Oakland appeared in multiple episodes of ''
The Rockford Files ''The Rockford Files'' is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigator ...
'', three times as blustery private detective Vern St. Cloud.


Personal life

Oakland was married to Lois Lorraine Porta. The couple had one daughter, Barbara.


Death

Oakland continued working up to the year of his death. His last credited acting appearance was in the episode "Living and Presumed Dead" on the CBS television series ''
Tucker's Witch ''Tucker's Witch'' is a comedy-detective series that aired on CBS television from October 6 to November 10, 1982, and again sporadically from March 31 to June 9, 1983. It stars Tim Matheson and Catherine Hicks as a charming married couple, Ric ...
''. That episode aired three months before Oakland's death from
colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...
in
Cathedral City, California Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second larg ...
, on August 29, 1983, the day after his 68th birthday.


TV and filmography


Notes


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oakland, Simon 1915 births 1983 deaths American male film actors American male stage actors American male television actors Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from colorectal cancer People from Brooklyn Male actors from New York City Male actors from Los Angeles 20th-century American male actors American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Western (genre) television actors